SHAD (AS. sccaddu, dialectic Ger. Scloude, shad; connected with Ir., Gael. sgadan, Welsh ysgadenyn, herring). An important anadromous fish of the herring family (Clupeidre, q.v.) and genus Alosa. Shad grow to a larger size than herring and differ from them in the absence of teeth in the jaws and in the form of the cheek, this being deeper than long in the shad. Shad live in the sea, but ascend rivers in the spring to spawn. They have their spawning beds, hut the eggs may be extruded anywhere promiscuously in the water. One female averages about 30,000 eggs, though as many as 150,000 have been ob tained. The eggs sink to the bottom, where they hatch in from three to five days. varying with the temperature. During their stay in the rivers shad take very little if any food. In the sea they swim with their mouths open, straining the minute organisms from the water which passes through their gills. In early days these fish were extremely abundant, but their popularity as a food-fish, together with the disturbance of their natural spawning grounds and the pollu tion of the rivers by factory refuse, have made great reductions in their number. Because they
are so prolific, however, and because of the arti ficial incubation of the eggs by Government hatch eries, the supply has been fairly maintained. The catch along the Atlantic coast of the United States in 1896 amounted to 50,000.000 pounds, with a value to the fishermen of $1,e100,000. (See FISHERIES ; FISH CULTURE.) The common shad of our Atlantic coast is Alosa sapidissima. It attains a. weight of three pounds on the average, but sometimes weighs from 12 to 14 pounds. Since about 1585 shad haVe been planted in streams of California, where they have become abundant and now extend northward to southern Alaska. The common shad of Europe is Alosa vulgaris, and an important species in Chinese waters is Alosa Reeresii. See A LLICE. Consult Goode, Fishery Industries (sec. i., Washington. 1554), and the publications of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. See Plate of II ERRING AND SHAD: and of FOOD FISHES, accompanying article Ftsit AS Foom